Billionaires eye Bitcoin as crypto-related services expand
CryptoCompare data shows the price of Bitcoin (BTC) started the week around $36,000 and steadily moved up to retest the $40,000 mark, from which it was rejected. The price of the cryptocurrency has since dropped, and at the time of writing BTC is changing hands at $35,900.
Ethereum’s Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, moved from $2,200 at the beginning of the week to over $2,800 before plunging back down and is now closing in on the $2,500 mark.
The week was marked by the launch of a controversial new Bitcoin Mining Council after MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor brokered a meeting between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and several prominent Bitcoin miners in North America.
The council is made up of several industry leaders, including Argo Blockchain, Blockcap, Hive Blockchain, Galaxy Digital, Marathon Digital, Riot Blockchain, and Hut 8 Mining. According to Saylor, the miners agreed to “promote energy usage transparency [and] accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide,” according to Saylor.
The group is reportedly committed to pursuing broad environmental, social, and corporate governance goals and educating the marketplace on how the Bitcoin mining process works. Musk himself tweeted about the meeting.
The meeting was held after Musk had announced Tesla was halting Bitcoin payments over environmental concerns. The announcement led to a drop in cryptocurrency prices at the time. The Bitcoin Mining Council was criticised by some, who likened it to the controversial New York Agreement of 2017 – a closed-door meeting that sought to influence how BTC would scale.
Saylor defended the mining council, saying it was born to help shape the flagship cryptocurrency’s energy use narrative. The controversy surrounding Bitcoin’s carbon footprint also saw crypto fund manager One River file a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It proposed the listing of a carbon-neutral bitcoin ETF on the New York Stock Exchange.
Cryptocurrency services expand
Despite the less-than-stellar price performance of top cryptocurrencies and the controversy surrounding the Bitcoin Mining Council, crypto-related services kept expanding over the week. Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase revealing it’s expanding its prime brokerage services offering to institutional clients with a unit that ties custody, data, data analytics, and other amenities together.
Coinbase Prime will offer institutional clients access to pricing on 12 different regulated exchanges, including Coinbase, as it looks to function as an umbrella of services ranging from smart-order routing to detailed trade cost analysis reports.
PayPal, which has been letting users buy, sell, and hold crypto since October 2020, is reportedly planning on allowing users to withdraw cryptocurrency bought on its platform to third-party wallets.
Tech giant Apple may also be planning a move into the cryptocurrency space, as according to a new job posting the firm is looking to hire a business development manager with experience in the cryptocurrency industry to lead its “alternative payments” partnership program.
Candidates for the job should have at least five years of experience working “in or with alternative payments provider such as digital wallet, BNPL [buy now pay later], Fast Payments, cryptocurrency and etc”.
Billionaires eye Bitcoin
Over the week it was revealed legendary hedge fund manager and billionaire investor Ray Dalio, founder, chairman, and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, has revealed he owns some Bitcoin, and claimed he would rather own BTC than a US government bond.
In an interview, the 71-year-old American whose net worth is estimated to be around $18.7 billion, revealed he sees the US dollar on the verge of devaluation on a level that was last seen in 1971, and that China is threatening the USD’s role as the world’s reserve currency. In such an environment, Dalio believes Bitcoin, with its gold-like properties, could be an attractive savings vehicle.
Similarly, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has revealed he is interested in investing in the cryptocurrency space in a “big way” and could buy more than $1 billion worth of crypto.
Icahn noted that while he hasn’t bought any cryptocurrency yet, he has been studying Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the crypto sector as a whole to find where the opportunities are. Cryptocurrencies, he added, are gaining popularity as a natural manifestation of inflation.
Despite their interest, not everyone is on board. HSBC CEO Noel Quinn has revealed that the bank has “no plans to launch a cryptocurrency trading desk” or offer cryptocurrencies as an investment option to its customers.
Francisco Memoria is a content creator at CryptoCompare who’s in love with technology and focuses on helping people see the value digital currencies have. His work has been published in numerous reputable industry publications. Francisco holds various cryptocurrencies but has no bias in his writing.
Featured image via Unsplash.